Sly Stone Returns With Alternately Riveting and Horrifying Memoir, ‘Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)’: Book Review

variety.com:

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Of all the fallen stars of the rock era, Sly Stone is definitely in the top 5 who seemed least likely to be writing an autobiography at 80 years old.

As the founder and guiding light of Sly and the Family Stone, he was one of the most brilliant stars of the Sixties, a charismatic and pioneering musician who not only fronted the first major multi-genre/ multi-racial/ multi-gender band, but whose songs addressed the turmoil and the spirit of the era and, initially anyway, landed on the side of positivity and self-empowerment: “Everybody Is a Star,” “You Can Make It If You Try,” “Everyday People,” “Stand!,” “I Want to Take You Higher.” He and the group were undisputed pioneers of funk, rock and soul music (and later became one of the most sampled artists in hip-hop history), and their electrifying performance at Woodstock turned them into one of the world’s biggest acts.

But as the decade turned, things grew dark when drugs, guns and violence entered the picture; the music got darker too, especially on the fiery “There’s a Riot Goin’ On.” Sly managed to keep his star aloft for a few more years — 1973’s “Fresh!” is one of his best albums — but the long downhill slide had begun, and by the late ‘70s he was broke, addicted and adrift — and for the most part, he remained that way.

There have been several aborted comebacks, all of them disasters entirely of his own making. So this book, written by a recently-sober Stone with the New Yorker’s Ben Greenman (and the first release from Questlove’s AUWA Books), is not only a welcome surprise, it’s written in a voice that will be so familiar to fans that its first few chapters are like a visit from a long-absent friend.